How to Remove Shortcut Virus on Windows

If the customers have plugged into the USB drive or SD card and find that the files are missing and replaced with shortcuts. This means that the USB drive has been infected with a virus. The data that the users are searching for is still there but it has been hidden. The user can recover the data and remove the infection from the drive with a few commands and some free tools. He or she has to follow few steps to fix the USB drive:

The user needs to connect the Pen drive to the computer

Determine the drive letter of the USB drive

The user has to find the drive letter for the USB drive because the USB drive has been affected by some kind of virus. The easiest and the fastest way to find this is to open the “computer”/ “This PC” window. The drive letter of the USB drive shall be there next to the drive label.

Press win +E to open the window to any version of windows

Then click the folder button in your taskbar to open the windows

Click “Computer” in the start menu if one is using Windows 7 or Vista

Open the command prompt

One customer can fix the problems using a few quick command prompt commands. At times the process of opening the command will vary depending on the version of the windows.

1. For any version one needs to press win+R and then type “cmd” to launch the command prompt.
2. For Windows 7 and older versions one needs to open the start menu and select the “command prompt”.

Next the user needs to type attrib –h –r –s /s /d X: \ * . * and press Enter. Then replace x with the USB drive’s letter. For example, if the USB drive letter is E, then type

Attrib –h –r –s /s /d E: \ * . * and then press enter
Once these steps are followed it will open the files from a hidden position and remove read only attributes and remove the shortcuts. The process can take a while depending on the data on the USB drive.

Open the unnamed folder created on the USB drive—this folder has all the hidden files that have been affected by the Virus.

Then copy the recovered data to a safe location on the computer. This is infact a temporary location while one finishes clearing the drive. Users can therefore create a folder on the desktop to create a file. The user needs to drag the files from the USB drives to any folder one wants to choose.

Right click on your drive in “Computer”, “This PC” and select “Format”. This will open the format window. The formatting process will completely erase the drive so one needs to make sure that they have copied all data.

Uncheck the “quick format” and click “start”. This will scan and remove infection on the USB drive.

These are the steps to remove the shortcut for virus on windows. If still the customers are having problems then they can call the on Toll-free Dell support number Australiaand get fixed your problem online. If you’re live in Adelaide you can visit our Dell repair centre Adelaide regarding this issue.

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